Resistance/ Movement: Lessons on Bathing and Writing

“The more important a call to action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel about answering it. But to yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.” Steven Pressfield

My kids still resist bathing. We’ve made certain days bath days and when the next one rolls around they are always astonished and indignant. They just bathed a few days ago!As if one could bathe once and for all–bubble bath, shampoo with the metal rinse cup–and be done with the whole business.

I shower at night, when I am tired, in order to free more precious minutes for my early morning writing, and I, too, resist. I am too tired, I think. I just need to lie down. And yet when I succeed in getting myself under the thrum and steam of the hot water: bliss. A cleansing, ritual purification readying me for the next day. A massage, pounding hot fingers of water soothing away the day’s tightenings.

I have noticed that anything that brings me joy, support, a foothold in the life I want to live . . . I will resist. Activities which require a shift in our state of being, a crossing of a threshhold–the daily human in me, my mind sitting in the flesh setting of my body like it’s the jewel and thre rest just a way to transport and display it, refuses.

The awakening of that stilled frame, the body, the soul, the part connected to other bodies, other souls the whole great rushing and expansive calm of the universe: who wants to venture there? Bathing, meditation, intimacy, shrugging off anger or disappointment, relaxing and, above all, writing: these are all boons, joys, that I resist.

Once my children get in the bath each time, it can be hard to get them out again. The regulation tub becomes a world of bubbles and warm magic liquid. Water sloshes over the side. Suds tower their hair: mohawk! bun! They level themselves to floating and, ears below the water, listen to the sounds of the bathroom, the house beyond, their own breath and beating hearts, in the echo chamber of the bath water. They don;t want to quit the engaging business of this play, to be wrapped in terrycloth, to be towelled off, released again to the world of air and the precision of objects and motion.

Lately I’ve been saying to myself, Just stand behind me. Skip the internal version of the astonished whining: “Bath time. Again? No . . . .” Just as it does for the kids each bathtime, it rises for me each time I encounter a portal to infinitude, to body/spirit/ connection. When the allotted time comes, begin. Turn the handles of the faucet, start the flow of water into the tub, pour the bubble bath, shed the clothes. Step in.

Post-script

Still feeling resistant? Of course–it’s a sign you are on your creative path. But get support. Surround yourself with people saying yes to your creativity, yes to your writing. Come check out the classes I am offering this summer for one easy way to get immediate access to your non-resistant flow of creativity. I have ONE spot left in one class and a few in the others, and I’d love for you to join us: https://bookwritingworld.com/work-with-me/